Gushes & rants about the things in our heads

Enforcer by Katana Collins

Ryan Gallagher is the one who does the dirty work. The brute force in the Harrison Street Crew, he lives to have the club all for his own one day. But the one thing he can’t have is Megan Mahoney—the one woman he’s loved since she was a teenager who needed saving.
Megan never forgot the all-consuming passion she felt for Ryan, her larger-than-life, wild teenage love. But coming from a hard, shocking past has left her broken and scared—and untrusting of the Harrison Street Crew. Ten years later, she’s back in Ryan’s world to claim a promise he made to her years ago. And even though she knows she shouldn’t fall for him, Ryan still has an explosive, sensual pull on her that she can’t ignore.
Ryan’s powerful love for Megan is the only thing that could ever soothe the tempestuous beast that roars in his soul. And when she comes back to him to aid her in a dangerous quest—a deadly revenge plot he swore he would be a part of years ago—Ryan can’t say no. He lives to protect this woman. He will die loving this woman. And as the stakes get higher, the love that they have kept hidden all these years explodes and goes further and deeper than either of them expected. But with a dark threat from Megan’s past thrust headlong into their lives, can their love win out?

‘Enforcer’ sounded like an intriguing read, with an upfront anti-hero type whose life is dedicated to a car club, which he serves by using violence and coercion. And while the MC/car club type stories aren’t usually what I go for, the premise of the book was interesting enough to begin with and in many ways, it’s unapologetically rough and tumble, suitably fitting for the cast of characters that populate the pages.

Coming into ‘Enforcer’ without reading the rest of the series is a little difficult; the number of characters jumping in and out of the pages can be disconcerting, though they do serve as a reminder that there are backstories which I don’t know. But perhaps the story’s biggest selling point is that it isn’t only just a story of an unrequited crush, but one that deals with the raw brutality of child abuse (and the consequences that can bring), the messiness of revenge and a political scandal that comes to light at the end of the book. There’s just so much packed into this that you can’t helped but be engrossed, but probably more so if you’ve been invested in the characters of the Harrison Street Crew from the very beginning.

For ‘Enforcer’, I found myself liking a main character more than the other, which most likely accounts for my on-the-fence rating of the book. Megan’s toughness and sass combined appealed loads to me and I loved her take-no-prisoners strength and sharpness in most things (especially it came to dealing with rough men like the car club members) except for the blind spot when it came to Ryan Gallagher, who happens to be the only one whom she can’t resist at all, despite the awful way he’d vacillated when it came to her. Ryan on the other hand, as the anti-hero, is a more dubious character for me, despite the fact that anti-heroes are by definition, the very dearth of morality and courage. But the anti-hero also straddles the fine line of becoming plain dislikable with his actions and I found it hard to like him at all, at least when it came to Megan, because he merely looked like a coward who would sleep with any other woman but her because he always thought himself not good enough (though he’ll just be her protector), despite her obvious advances.

Katana Collins however, does know how to write a mean, intense book. It’s probably just my preferences showing up here, though objectively speaking, it’s more a story for those who like the MC-type romances.